Its that time off year again when we men forget until the day that Valentines day is coming up, well never fear the old romantic Sean is here to offer a possible solution. Why not carve her or him a little token of your love. All you need is a piece of willow or lime and a small block of yew, some boiling water a vice and knife as well as a drill.

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If you don`t want to spend the time of carving a yew heart why not be a skinflint and use a washer, but down our way 2p coins are cheaper and if you do not mind defacing the queen coin why not also cut it into the shape of a heart.

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The heart one is the first I have done and unfortunatly the hole is a little off centre. By the way nothing is jointed or glued or even taken 3 years to grow through the hole

"Scarcely anything is original- it`s very hard to be totally inventive, so I am not terribly interested in originality. Vitality is all I care about" Clive JamesGreen wood courses, tools, demonstrations.http://www.seanhellman.com/woodwork/

You got it Robin. I also soak it afterwards in water, it seems to swell faster.Boiling water works best first off, because when you put it in the vice the wood dries out faster and tends to retain its shape for a few seconds longer. You will need to bang the arrow through the hole and I have bent 2p coins by banging too hard because I did not make the arrow small enough. Give it a go its a graet talking point when selling or demonstrating.It was Tangerman that first got me into these, he has an arrow through a target which is a disc of wood. The arrow head can be turned on the lathe and it is the disc which is boiled. I love his Whittling and woodcarving book but some of his descriptions of how to make stuff takes a bit of working out, unlike the how to books these days. Has anyone made a pair of pliers yet out of one piece of wood? another of his many projects

"Scarcely anything is original- it`s very hard to be totally inventive, so I am not terribly interested in originality. Vitality is all I care about" Clive JamesGreen wood courses, tools, demonstrations.http://www.seanhellman.com/woodwork/

Experiment and you will find the answers, I have done a lot of experiments, it will give you a better understanding of the nature of wood, try it both ways and with different woods.

You have to find the correct size of arrow head before you squash it, to big and it will fail, this is because you have to hit it hard. It should be a gentle tap

"Scarcely anything is original- it`s very hard to be totally inventive, so I am not terribly interested in originality. Vitality is all I care about" Clive JamesGreen wood courses, tools, demonstrations.http://www.seanhellman.com/woodwork/

Well here we go ( Stanley knife in hand ) , my first attempt , tbh I'm not overly happy with the shape . It resembles more of a heart shaped bar of soap you might buy than a hand carved heart and arrow, but hey it ain't too bad. Plenty more practice required though.

I certainly won't be making a living at it lol as it's probably taken me the best part of a day to do it overall but then thats not what I'm here for.It's a bit thick and chunky and no doubt it will get much tougher as it gets finer.

"Scarcely anything is original- it`s very hard to be totally inventive, so I am not terribly interested in originality. Vitality is all I care about" Clive JamesGreen wood courses, tools, demonstrations.http://www.seanhellman.com/woodwork/